Travels of an Australian Swami

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Monthly Archives: October 2016

Dipavali or Diwali means “a row of lights”. It falls on the last two days of the dark half of Karttika (October-November). For some it is a three-day festival, others a five day festival.

There are various alleged origins attributed to this festival. Some hold that they celebrate the marriage of Lakshmi with Lord Vishnu. In Bengal the festival is dedicated to the worship of Kali.

Srila PrabhupadaI said that this festival commemorates the triumphant return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after defeating the asura Ravana. The citizens welcomed the Lord by lighting the way with tens of thousands of candles.

Srila Prabhupada struggled in the early 1970s to acquire the ISKCON Juhu property in Mumbai. He promised Sri Sri Radha Rasabihari, who were then housed in small shack, a beautiful temple.

The complex opened in 1978 and now includes a spacious marble temple, an auditorium, restaurant, a twin towered seven-storey guest house, the Heaven on Earth conference guest house and a seven floor devotee accommodation.

The GBC body came here In the middle of October for the mid-term meeting.

Shri Madhvacharya appeared in 1238 A.D. near Udupi, Karnataka in South India. He was considered an incarnation of Vayu (wind god). He had an unusually strong physique and extraordinary intellectual power.

Madhvacharya took diksha at age five, sannyasa at twelve and left home. He appeared with a mission to fight and defeat Sankara’s Mayavada (impersonal) philosophy. By giving a pure interpretation of Vedanta-sutra he promoted pure theism. He named his innovative shastric explanation dvaita-dvaita-vada (pure dualism).